


Dark Descent

by Midnightbytheshoreside



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: A graphic violence tag, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Demonic Possession, Descent into Madness, M/M, Near character death, gay ships lmao, just in case ;3, leokumi - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-10-22
Packaged: 2019-03-07 12:57:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13435188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Midnightbytheshoreside/pseuds/Midnightbytheshoreside
Summary: Takumi approached the ragged stone podium slowly, reaching his hand foward, feeling the ominous energy that was radiating off the blood red crystal floating at the center.“Taking this will give me power?”‘Power to defeat anything in the known universe’“What’s the cost? Nothing is free.”‘Well... What are you willing to lose for power?’





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> In other words, Takumi is slowly influenced and possessed by a demon for seeking power, and the others need to band together in order to save their dear friend/sibling.
> 
> And you know
> 
> Stop him from destroying all life as people know it.
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> And lotsa Leokumi cause I’m w e a k

Takumi heaved a deep breath, holding it temporarily as he let loose the 100th arrow of that set, then sighing and letting his arms fall at his side when the arrow struck the target’s edge, then skidded off and shot into the dirt, causing a small crater to be formed from the magical power of the Fujin Yumi.

“Wow, pineapple head. At this rate, I’m going to become a better archer than you.”

Takumi whipped around, bow already drawn back with a glowing blue arrow notched and aimed before he slowly lowered the bow, and saw Leo’s smirking face staring back at him. Sometimes he wanted to shoot that silly grin right off the Nohrian’s stupid face, but restraint is also a valuable virtue.

“Shut up. Last time I let you wield a bow, you shot everything in the near vicinity except for the target, then snapped the wooden bow in half and stormed off muttering about how ‘magic is the superior fighting form anyways’” He returned the smirk as Leo rolled his eyes, pushing himself off the wall he was leaning against and approaching Takumi.

“Look. All quips aside. What are you doing, shooting arrows out here so late into the night? We missed you at dinner. You said you would show up.” He crossed his arms accusingly as Takumi just shook his head, but laid his bow down on a table, avoiding Leo’s gaze.

It was true that he had promised he would be at the joined dinner between the Nohrian and Hoshidan families, and normally it would be something special, but Takumi was getting awfully tired of socializing at this point.

Both royal families had decided to get to know their newest friends and allies better, which was achieved by going together to a distant nature resort for a much needed vacation. It wasn’t that Takumi did not enjoy having the company of his own siblings and Nohrian royals all the time, it was simply that if he had to listen to one more dick measuring contest between Ryoma and Xander, one more session of Camilla trying to baby Hinoka, or one more squeal of excitement from the younger princesses, he was really, really going to go mad.

“Look, I’m sorry alright? We all need a break sometimes, Leo. Plus, just because the war between our countries is over, does not mean there’s nothing to do but goof off and eat cake together with your friends. I need to be prepared and strong enough to face whatever future obstacles may come..” He turned so his back was facing the table he placed his bow on, then gave himself a little lift so he was sitting on the edge of the table. 

Leo’s expression softened a little as he watched Takumi gently rubbing his arm, likely sore from all the shooting he’s been doing, and sighed, shaking his head gently and unfolding his arms. “I understand your constant struggle for more power and attention from your family, Takumi, but this really is not going to help. You have to understand that people have limits.”

Takumi rolled his eyes and scoffed, leaning back on his left arm. “If that's true, then what is all this talk about giving 110%?” He sifted and resorted to laying down on his back on the table, staring up at the stars starting to appear in the night sky. “I just… cannot accept that no matter what I do, I will not be able to catch up to Ryoma and Hinoka. I know I can… I just have to find a way to get there.” He turned his head towards Leo, who had walked up next to the table while he was talking and lie down on it similar to Takumi.

“I know, you’re just a stubborn person (no one casually says teen lmfao). Just don’t go stressing everyone out. You know people care about you, right?” He stared up at the sky as well as there was nothing but dead silence as a reply. He pointed a finger up to the sky and started tracing some shapes and figures in the stars.

Takumi observed Leo’s actions with subtle interest, before attempting to find a few shapes himself. Soon, Leo elbowed Takumi gently in the side and pointed towards their right. “Look, those ones are shaped like a pineapple. Or your head. Same difference.” He looked towards Takumi and smiled as he rolled his eyes.

“Look, that one looks like a piece of shit. Or your face. Same difference.” He said before Leo flicked him gently in the head, and they both sat up, chuckling slightly. Leo slid off the table and made the motion of dusting himself off before looking at Takumi again, who was now sitting up on the table.

“I have to go back and make preparations for sleeping tonight. Don’t stay up too late. Ryoma and Xander have a bet to see who can hunt more fish from the lake faster tomorrow. It should be interesting to watch.” He grinned, askew to one side.

“Yes. Fine, mother, I’ll make sure to get in bed early.” He complained, but smiled. “Goodnight, Leo.”

“Goodnight, Takumi.” The nohrian prince promptly turned around with a gentle swish of his cape and left.

—————————————————————

Takumi yawned, dismantling the last of the racks he used for his archery practice and putting them away for the night soon after Leo left. He turned to reach for his bow and go to his room to throw in the towel for the night, before a sudden chill went down his back. He instantly picked up the Fujin Yumi, magical arrow already appearing in its proper place before frantically glancing around the archery range.

“Who's there!? Be warned, I am not someone to be trifled with!” He glared at his surroundings, before gently lowering his bow and allowing the glow to disappear when nothing showed up. He shook his head, and muttered to himself “I must be going nuts” before turning away, but this time he caught something out of the corner of his eye.

A faint red glow was between two of the trees in the forest to the far right of the range, and the wisp seemed to be waving, beckoning him towards it, before disappearing. Takumi hesitated, before activating his bow again and slowly creeping towards the light, peering in between the trees.

As he does this, more and more of the wisps appear, almost forming a trail. The Hoshidan prince started following them, intrigued as the further he walked, the brighter the lights got, until finally the trail ended at the mouth to a cave tunnel. He slowly approached, trying to catch a glance of what was inside before suddenly, the red light started gathering from all around, seeping in through the walls of the tunnel, and conjoining in the center to form the shape of… a woman?

“Hello. You must be Prince Takumi.” The woman smiled as Takumi frowned, taking a cautious step back at the sight of this mysterious figure.

“Who are you? How do you know who I am?” 

The figure just smiled almost sweetly. “I am a bound spirit. I felt your powerful presence all the way from within my cave, and decided to call out to you. I have gift for you. Come.” She waved her hand towards herself before walking into the cave.

Takumi stood outside, looking back over his shoulder to where he could see the resort’s lights in the near distance. He should be going home but… Something in this cave did indeed call out to him, and he felt compelled to follow the spirit into the cave and see this gift of hers. 

After only pausing for a moment, Takumi rushed a few steps to catch up with the woman and slowed down to walk beside her in silence. They come upon an opening to a larger space, and he was suddenly blinded with crystals in the walls all started glowing with a faint red tinge the moment they entered the room, which was something to gawk at until the prince saw the center.  
There was a craggy rock podium, which opened up with jagged teeth like decorations on the side, and floating in the center was a single, blood red crystal, radiating energy and what felt like pure power.

“What?” Takumi stepped closer, speechless as he stared at the gem. “What… is this?” He turned his attention off the magical item for a moment to regard the woman, who was staring at the crystal with a grin.

“This is the magical stone that I am attached to. Inside was sealed away unimaginable power, since the ancients did not believe that there was a hand worthy of holding it.” She turned and looked at him. “I overheard that you wanted power. Your ambitions are strong, and your dedication is incredible. I think you could do great things with the power within this crystal.”

Takumi approached the ragged stone podium slowly, reaching his hand forward. , feeling the ominous energy that was radiating off the blood red crystal floating at the center.

“Taking this will give me power?”

“Power to defeat anything in the known universe”

“What’s the cost? Nothing is free.”

‘Well... What are you willing to lose for power?”

He gave her a look, pulling his hand back slightly as the woman just chuckled.

“In case you’re wondering, I’m not going to take anyone’s life or soul or anything like that just because you take this gemstone. This was meant for someone like you. The worst thing I can imagine happening is that I am bound to this crystal, which means you might have to deal with my presence being around sometime. Other than that, only good things can come to you. What are the cons? You want power don’t you?”

Takumi considered for a moment. The offer didn’t seem too bad. He was deemed worthy, after all, and he would finally have the power to protect his siblings and Hoshido, and wouldn’t have to be jealous anymore. He lifted his hand again as he almost felt the crystal pulling him towards it. What could possibly be so bad about receiving this gift?

The prince took a deep breath before finally taking a step in, closing his hand around the crystal, prepared to feel some recoil from the power he had felt radiating off the gem but instead everything just felt… normal. He looked around as the lights in the cave started to dim, before flickering out completely, leaving him in the pitch black of the cave with nothing but a glowing spirit woman.

“Did… it work?” He gazed down at the stone in his hands, now only emitting a dull glow from its core.

The spirit simply nodded and smiled. “You’re its new master now. You can control the power that you wish to draw from within it.” She smiled at him and Takumi looked up and smiled slightly back, pocketing the crystal.

“I can’t wait to show the others this, they’ll be so excited to hear I’ve found something that could aid in strengthening our countries!” He turned to run out the cave, but found the spirit blocking his way, shaking her head.

“No, master Takumi, you must not tell anyone else about this stone.” She said as Takumi stopped in his tracks and frowned, gently waving his hand over the place where the crystal was.

“Why… not? My siblings are my family, they mean more to me than the world, and Leo and the others are some of my closest friends.”

“Greed is a powerful force, master Takumi. You must not show this to the others, what if they try to take it from you to use it? It could cause harm, it was not meant for them to wield.” She explained, and Takumi considered for a moment.

He can't imagine that any of his family, or even the Nohrian nobles for that matter, would every try to take something from him out of greed, or try to use something of his that could be dangerous in the hands of others. They’re responsible people, but…

“I guess… you’re right…um… what should I call you?” He tilted his head as the spirit’s cheerful expression returned.

“You may call me Yuki, master Takumi.” The prince smiled at her and nodded.

“Alright then, Yuki. I look forward to… working with you?” He questioned as the spirit nodded, and stepped aside, gesturing to Takumi to exit the cave. He smiled at her, still amazed at his own luck. He was a little disappointed that he couldn’t show his siblings the stone but, why would he need to? There may have been a reason, but his thoughts went back to how tired he was and how comfy a place his bed would be right about now, so he headed back to the castle without another thought.

——————————————————

Yuki followed behind Takumi, casting one last glance back at her cave, her prison, before looking away from it. She couldn’t help but smirking to herself at the back of the fool who just freed her. He was even easier to manipulate than she ever could have thought. Her perfect, royal puppet.

 

The next few months were going to be extremely, extremely fun.


	2. Starting Line

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is a lil short but ;; don't worry!! the next one will be longer.

Takumi was absolutely, 100% ready to drive his head directly into the nearest tree.

Both royal families are currently by the lake a couple kilometers away from the main resort building they’re staying at, since Ryoma and Xander decided that a fishing competition would be a good idea. To be honest, it sounded good on paper, but after about the third hour of watching the two leaders of their countries stare intensely into a pool of water without moving, Takumi almost wished he was still fighting a war. Almost.

“You think the lake even HAS fish?” Leo muttered from beside him as he took another bite of.. Wait.

“Leo, I swear to literally every deity that is in existence, what in the ever loving heck are you doing.” The Nohrian prince looked up towards him with not even a glimmer of remorse in his eyes, then shrugged and took another bite from a whole, unsliced tomato. Takumi stared at him as he continued to chew, neither of them breaking eye contact for a good minute before he finally face-palmed. “You are absolutely the most ridiculous person I have ever met in all 17 years of my life.”

The blonde shrugged at him, grabbing one of the picnic napkins that they had brought along with the food and wiped his mouth, then putting it under the tomato to soak up any extra drippage. “Your peasant tastebuds simply can't comprehend the deliciousness of tomatoes.”

“I can understand tomatoes can taste good, what I cannot understand is why you’re biting into it whole like an apple-- you know what I don’t care.” They both rolled their eyes almost simultaneously, before suddenly Takumi caught sight of something red from the corner of his eyes. “Uh, pardon me for a moment, I’m gonna go do something.” He got up and followed the direction where he saw the flash of light, a couple of trees into the forested area.

“Hello.” 

Takumi turned and jumped back quickly as he heard the voice, hand instinctively reaching for a bow that wasn’t there. He relaxed and lowered his hands back to his sides as he realized that it was just Yuki standing there before him, giggling at his reaction. “Oh, quiet down, you’re not supposed to just suddenly appear like that, I could have thought you were a bear or something.”

“Master Takumi, what bears have you met that would say hello to you in a human female’s voice?” He looked as if he was about to retort before Yuki shook her head, silently shushing him. “Listen, I’m here because I have a suggestion, ok?” She pointed in the direction of the lake where the two kings are sitting. “They’ve been at this for hours with no results, but I know how you can impress them. Take your bow master Takumi, and tie a string to the end. I will guide your arrow to the fish, so that you may capture something for your family.”

Takumi considered the spirit’s proposition for a moment. It really does seem like a good idea, after all, what could possibly go wrong? He nodded towards Yuki. “Alright then. Let’s go get this done!” He flashed her an assuring grin before strolling back towards the group, and picking up his bow that was leaning against a tree.

“What do you think you’re doing. I thought we made an agreement to stop training at least for this morning. Did you already forget?” Leo huffed at him from the sidelines, but the Hoshidan rolled his eyes back at him, and pointed towards the lake with the tip of his Yumi.

“No, you assumptious ass, I’m going to show you all how fishing is really done!” He walked up to the edge of the water, and drew his bow as a blue light arrow appeared in the notch, connected to a long string that appeared of a similar material. He pointed the arrow towards the surface. “Watch and learn, Nohrian scum.”

“Hey! I thought we were over that.”

“It’s a term of endearment!” 

Despite how hard he tried, Takumi couldn’t see any movement beneath the semi-reflective surface of the water, but then he remembered the spirits words. He took a deep breath as he saw some red magic being weaved in alongside his arrow before he fired into the lake with a small plopping noise. He grabbed the other end of the string quickly in his free hand, until the speeding arrow suddenly stopped, then moved slowly for a couple more seconds before halting all together. He pulled the string all the way back up, along with a decent sized fish pierced through with the long arrow.

“Tadaaaa.” He held up his catch with a grin, as his and Leo’s family gazed up at him, some in confusion while others in awe or contempt.

Xander was the first to break the silence and chuckle, elbowing he Hoshidan crown prince in the arm. “My, my. It seems your little brother is better at this than either of us are. Maybe we should pull out our swords and start stabbing into the water for fish, it might work better.” Ryoma rolled his eyes but couldn’t contain a laugh.

“I wouldn’t say that would be proper use of a blade or any magical weapon, but I can’t say either that I’m not impressed.” Takumi pouted slightly at the response, since he was looking for more praise, but then Xander elbowed Ryoma harder than last time.

“Don’t be such a stick in the mud, Ryoma. Takumi did well, he actually did fishing. The rest of us are sitting here with lines in the water like dummies.” He grinned, then added on sarcastically. “Maybe you should make him the king instead, he seems more qualified.”

“If the king of Hoshido were crowned based on fishing skills then yes indeed, I would hand the crown over right now.” The two chortled back and forth between each other, before going back to fishing, leaving Takumi to go back to Leo and the others with his catch.

Leo had scooted over near the younger sibling’s picnic blanket, and he patted the space beside him as Takumi sat down. He then recoiled with disgust as he watched the fish flop on the arrow one more time, and made a face. “Say, what are you going to do with that th--”

“We should cook it!” The princes startled as their sibling Corrin jumped up and wrapped one arm around each of them. “Come on, it looks big n juicy! We can add fish to the picnic menu then!” She gave them a wide grin as they looked at each other and shrugged almost simultaneously.

“Why not.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Corrin bounced up and down in excitement, then patted them both on the shoulders. “I’ll go collect firewood then I’ll be back!” And without another word, bounded into the forest.

Takumi and Leo stared after her in slight shock, but then glanced at each other again and laughed. May their odd little family never change.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

King? Why that does sound nice.

Yuki swayed back and forth, invisible to the eyes of the royals almost right next to her who were huzzahing as the white haired female dropped a pile of sticks in front of them.

King hm? Why that’d be fun. Yes, she’ll turn Takumi into a King. Shouldn’t be hard, would it? 

The old king is dead, Long live the King.

Yes, yes. How hard could it be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shoutout to the first person that finds the shoehorned in venom reference--


End file.
